A Posse Ad Esse

Jet and I finally finished watching all the episodes of One Piece, the pirate anime that follows 16-year-old Luffy (who doesn't drink) through the gathering of his nakama and into their adventures through the past and present.

We started the 500+ episode saga when he was eight, he's now eleven, and we're going through them again, starting at episode #1 and rolling through them at a very rapid rate (we're already at 60 again in about a week and a half). incandescens did an amazing job of encouraging him with a lovely art book and trading cards. And there's something about the series that both Jet and I keep coming back to with respect to Luffy and his crew.

There's lot of gems throughout. The art in the manga is even more over the top than the art in the anime, but it all kind of goes with the storylines as well. I know a lot of people who just hate the series, but it tells me something when someone loves it, too. Jet and I definitely love it. *laughs*

And if I do fanfiction it'll definitely be Gen and capture some of the essence of what I truly love about the themes of courage, redemption (so MANY of the "bad guys" become "good"), companionship, and what it really means to put your life on the line.

Hell, I'm a little crazy anyway. If anyone wants to give me people and a prompt for One Piece in the comments here, I'll write a 100-1000 word drabble for you. And it can be anywhere up and down the anime line. I haven't read the manga past Book 13, so I know about the differences with Red Leg Zeff, but other than that....

I think the one episode I keep going back to, over and over again, has to be the one where Luffy FINALLY makes Robin admit that she really does want to live. That for all her fears and uncertainty about how it's going to happen, she really wants to be alive, to have her nakama, and to sail with her crew after finally finding a place. And every time I see it I cry. *laughs softly*

We both loved the complete insanity that was the prison break. The complex lines of it really made my brain happy. Bon Kurei/Mr. 2 just broke my heart in so many ways. Both of us loved him by the end of all that. Jet is fiercely certain that he's NOT dead and that he'd going to come back later. *grins*

Ace's dying really bothered Jet a lot, we stopped watching for nearly four months after it happened; but I really kind of loved how it happened, the entirety of his childhood with Luffy and the noble kid who gave it all up to be with them. And how poor Ace was kind of doomed from the beginning, and that it was his character that drove the decisions, and obviously so. The plot might have been hatched, but it had to have fledged with the real heart of who and what Ace was from the very beginning with the Whitebeard Pirates.

In the very beginning, when Luffy's facing Arlong, he has this magnificent speech about how he can't use a sword, can't navigate, can't cook, can't even lie; but that's why he finds companions who can. Together they can live, and he admits what he misses without any qualms whatsoever. He understands this at such a fundamental level that there's absolutely no question in him about it at all. He has to have his nakama to live.

The whole idea of being a pirate means being able to 'put your life on the line'. For anything. It seems to be so random, but it can be so utterly amazing what Luffy and his nakama choose to do it for. And it's one of those things so few people 'get', why the hell would anyone risk their lives or health for anything or anyone? After decades of throwing my health after particular and specific goals, that really speaks to me. Luffy and his crew answer that over and over and over again. I also love how Luffy and his crew respect the weak. Just because they are strong, doesn't mean that they disdain the weak, and in fact, they seem to go out of their way to help the 'weak' do what they never dreamed they could do. Everyone from the crybaby princess to little Apis trying her tiny best to defend, of all things, a dragon.

Simple motivations hold a lot of sway in the instant decisions that they sometimes have to make, and it makes a huge case for characters that have very straightforward defining aspects. Luffy always tries to be his vision of the Pirate King. Zoro always betters his swordmanship no matter the cost. Usopp, for all that he is an utter coward to begin with, works towards being brave. Nami always looks for the next place to map when she isn't stealing more money. Sanji feeds anyone that needs it. Robin learns the next thing. And they all risk everything, including the safety of the world, to do so. Everything in their pasts heads them in that direction, and everything they do is another step along their path.

Anyway... yes. Enjoyed it a great deal. Watching it all again with an eye to the details I missed the first time. It's been wonderful...

If you did feel like writing something about Tashigi and Robin, and meeting at some point after the Alabasta incident, and maybe some sort of growth on the part of either or both of them, I would be extremely grateful.

(Incidentally, have you tried Fairy Tail at all? It's not as good as One Piece, but then very little is, and it is also a celebration of shounen virtues. And I'm very fond of a particular character in it who has truly weaponised the Laurencian "Scabbard" attunement.)